Hunters help birds find better habitat

Paul A. Smith

Dave Swanson (left) and Jim Christenson of the Green Bay Duck Hunters Association prepare to release a mallard hen and ducklings at a wildlife sanctuary in Green Bay. The birds were rescued earlier in the day from a residential swimming pool.

By

Published on: 6/12/2010

Green Bay — The hen mallard leads its day-old charges across a busy street, avoiding squealing tires and barking dogs, and into the nearest water hole - a backyard swimming pool. The ducklings plop in one after another.

But with no food in the water and unable to climb out, the next chapter in the young birds' lives is ominous.

Lucky ducks. The next humans on the scene are members of the Green Bay Duck Hunters Association.

A trio of pickups pulls up along the residential street on the west side of Green Bay. The trucks are loaded with specialized sets of tools - long handled nets, cages, blankets, water dishes, stakes and netting.

Three veteran hunters walk into the bright afternoon light and assess the scene.

"Set the cage in the shade," says Dave Swanson, president of the GBDHA. "We'll probably have to scoop them up."

Joe Loehlein and Jim Christenson place the cage and then discuss a plan of attack. The hen swims in angry circles in the center of the pool, flaring its tail feathers and hissing a defense. The ducklings huddle close.

Swanson and Loehlein then alternately make swift sweeps with nets, snaring the ducklings. The downy birds are placed in a special back section of the cage; a front trap door is then opened.

The men retreat, giving the hen space to reconnoiter with its offspring. Though wary of the cage, after a few minutes the bird's maternal instinct wins out and it walks in.

Christenson pulls a cord and the trap door drops.

Can you say duck rescue?

The Green Bay Duck Hunters Association has been conducting such captures since the late 1970s. The ducks are collected in suburban and urban areas of Green Bay, including highway medians, office parks, car dealerships and shopping centers.

Amazingly, some broods find their way on the city's high-rise bridge each year. And many ducklings fall into storm sewers.

The hunters have received training and obtained the requisite permits to perform the work. Since it started the project, the club has rescued and released about 10,000 ducks.

The birds are released at wildlife preserves and nature centers in the Green Bay area, which features the largest contiguous wetland on Lake Michigan.

Before he leaves the pool, Loehlein hands a piece of literature to the homeowner. It describes the club's work and what to do in the future if they observe ducks in similar distress.

"A big part of this is education," says Loehlein, loading up the back of his pickup. "Lots of people want to know why hunters are doing this."

Hunters come in many shapes and sizes. All pay for wildlife management and habitat through excise taxes on equipment and purchases of hunting licenses and duck stamps. And some, like the GBDHA, exhibit a nurturing side.

The group has about 75 members; the duck rescue efforts are conducted by a handful of members, ranging in age from their 50s to 70s, who are mostly retired.

The busiest time is typically mid-May to mid-June, but they are active from April to July most years.

Do they have a schedule?

"The schedule is the ducks," Loehlein says. "We're on call 24 hours."

The duck rescue work began when two of the club's founding members, Ted Thyrion and Milt Geyer, learned that the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay was overwhelmed with requests to assist ducks in spring.

The duo set about to help and instituted a system that includes nest monitoring, captures of recently hatched ducks and emergency rescues of ducks.

The club is on call with the county emergency dispatch center when hens and ducklings are in danger. In a partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, club members receive training in handling and banding of hens. The data collected is then forwarded to the USFWS.

Thyrion and Geyer did the bulk of the work for the first 10 years.

Loehlein, known by many in Green Bay as "Father Duck," is now the point man for the project.

The GBDHA has developed techniques over the years to increase survival of duck broods. For example if a hen is found nesting in unsuitable habitat, the group installs a low fence around the nest. The group then monitors the nest until the eggs hatch. The hen can fly in and out, but the ducklings are contained. The men simply pick up the young birds and capture the hen in the cage.

The group has also developed a set of hen mallard recordings to help lure ducklings out of storm sewers.

In the wild only about 15% of duck nests hatch out. Nests helped by the GBDHA achieve about a 90% rate of success.

The group's work was honored in April by the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. Specifically, members Loehlein and Tim Braunel were named Wildlife Conservationists of the Year for their efforts with the project.

Through Thursday, the group had rescued 831 ducks this spring. Its previous high was 826 last year.

The work has allowed the hunters to forge positive relationships with the community, Loehlein says.

"Some people may have no contact with hunters," says Loehlein, driving north to a release site along the shore of Green Bay. "This interaction opens some eyes."

The men are lifelong waterfowl hunters who still enjoy the fall seasons.

"But sometimes I think we spend more time on this than we do duck hunting," says Swanson.

The club has also done projects like purple loosestrife reduction and native plant introductions at area wildlife refuges. It spends most time, though, on the duck rescue project.

"Our wives are saints," Loehlein says. The duck rescuers donate their time, vehicles and gas.

The club reimburses them for materials like netting and cages. And it pays for them to take their wives out for "one good meal," says Loehlein.

By rescuing and relocating the ducks, the hunting club has taken pressure off local law enforcement agencies, which are often called to the scene of ducks caught in traffic or trapped in storm sewers, and local wildlife sanctuaries.

"They are immensely helpful to us," says Lori Bankson, senior animal keeper at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay. "We're almost always at capacity, and their efforts allow us to focus on other areas of need."

The duck rescue project is well worth replicating, Bankson says. Efforts are under way to start a similar project with hunters and wildlife rehabbers in Appleton.

Later in the afternoon, with a cargo that includes two hens and two dozen ducklings, the trio of pickups works its way to Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve, part of the Brown County Park System along the bay's western shore. For the ducklings, it's their first migration.

The ducks will be released here in a weed-filled pond.

Christenson recalls one release attended by a group of school children. As the duck brood paddled across a pond and waddled up a far shore, a red-tailed hawk came down and snatched a duckling.

"Some of the kids were kind of upset, but that's nature," says Christenson. "Getting run over by a car isn't nature."

At least for today, there are no more asphalt roads, no more chlorine-filled bodies of water. The men carry the cages to the pond's edge and open them.

The hens nervously jump out, followed by chirping ducklings, and paddle across the pond.

In minutes, the ducks are picking insects off the water, looking like they were hatched on an adjacent, grassy shore.

"At least they've got a better chance," says Christenson. "At least now they can live like nature intended."

***

A HISTORY OF HELPING

The Green Bay Duck Hunters Association was formed in 1958 and has about 75 members. In addition to supporting groups like Delta Waterfowl and Ducks Unlimited and the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, its members have initiated many local projects in Green Bay, including planting native food sources for wildlife, working to restore the habitat of the Cat Island chain and a duck rescue program.

Since the late 1970s the group has captured more than 10,000 ducks in the city and suburbs of Green Bay and relocated the birds to more suitable, natural habitat. The effort has relieved strain on a local wildlife rehabilitation center and helped build positive relationships between hunters and the public. The club and local wildlife rehabbers feel the model is worth replicating in other Wisconsin communities.

To learn more, call Joe Loehlein of the GBDHA at (920) 621-8950 or Lori Bankson at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary at (920) 391-3682. More information is also available at the GBDHA's website: www.duckrescue.com.